1. TFD’s Multi-Stakeholder Platforms in the Land Use Dialogue 4 July 2019
Bethany Linton
Program Manager
TFD’s Multi-Stakeholder Platforms
in the Land Use Dialogue
4 July 2019
1, TFD INTRO:
2. TFD’s evolution toward MSP’s through the LUD
Landscape approach
LUD
3. Case studies with PLUS under TFD’s MSP methodology
TFD: Social-process-focused Multi stakeholder convening body that facilitates a process of dialogue on forest and landscape issues. Our goal is to enhance understanding and commitment to sustainable environmental management.
We are a Program based at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies providing a critical training center on stakeholder engagement for students/staff/faculty with expertise in the fields of forestry and environmental studies.
We are a forum, rather than a research center, for results-driven MSDialogues.

2. The Forests Dialogue Purpose Structure
Established in 2000 by NGO and Business Leaders
Reduce conflict among forest stakeholders
International platform and process to discuss key Sustainable Forest Management and conservation issues
Build mutual trust, enhanced understanding and commitment to change
Moving from a forest centric approach to landscapes
Structure
Steering Committee
Secretariat
Network of Partners
Structure:
Our work begins and ends with an external Steering Committee
Designed for sector diversity to be dynamic and representative
Environment & Social NGO, Unions, Research Organizations, Forest Owners, Indigenous Peoples, Companies, Intergovernmental Organizations
Two Co-Leaders
Dialogue Co-Chair
Secretariat: carries out partnerships defined by SCM
SCM MISSION “To address significant obstacles to sustainable forest and landscape management through a constructive dialogue-process among all key stakeholders.
TFD’s approach is based on mutual trust and enhanced understanding, with commitment to change.
Our dialogues are designed to build relationships and to spur collaborative action on the highest priority issues facing the world’s forest landscapes”

3. TFD by the Numbers 2000-present
1st dialogue in 2002 on Forest Certification
19 different Initiatives
80+ International Dialogues
37 different countries
3000+ Stakeholders
100+ Publications
Our scope is global and methods tried

4. TFD’s Initiatives 2000-2018 Forest and Land Tenure Reform
Sustainable Wood Energy
Land Use Dialogues
Understanding Deforestation-Free
Tree Plantations in the Landscape
REDD+ Initiatives (4 total)
Food, Fuel, Fiber and Forests
Genetically Modified Trees
Free, Prior, and Informed Consent
Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry
Forests & Poverty Reduction and Rural Livelihoods
Intensively Managed Planted Forests
Illegal Logging and Forest Governance
Forests and Biodiversity Conservation
Forest Certification
Of all our initiatives to date, TODAY, we will focus on our LUD platforms
But first, what is our model of dialogue?

5. TFDs “Dialogic Change” Model
Technically TFD is a “Stakeholder Platform” that implements “Stakeholder Initiatives”
1. ‘ENGAGE’: Identify key issues, build trust, share perspectives and information.
2. ‘EXPLORE’: Seek consensus about challenges and opportunities to solve a forest-related ‘fracture-line’.
3 ‘CHANGE’: Promote and facilitate actions that lead to solutions, with impact in policy and on the ground.
MSD: multi stakeholder dialogue
At it’s core, it is an Exchange among representative stakeholders to build trust, seek consensus, and facilitate collaborative action.
Coordinate between sectors, reconcile competing land uses. Balance local needs and global objectives. Employ adaptive management by testing and response
Decision-making over policy making
Unique to the LUD: use a landscape approach. This is something ppl already do and engage in, recognizing it can bring change. There is benefit in learning what works in some places and others.

6. The learnings that led TFD to MSPs
TFDs early work focused on conflict between environmental NGOs and business but quickly realized that:
Uncertainty or lack of rights led to conflict;
Exclusion from the resource led to conflict;
Top down management led to conflict;
Weak governance and unenforced policies led to conflict;
Elite capture led to conflict;
Poverty led to conflict.
PURPOSE:
TFDs early work focused on conflict between environmental NGOs and business but quickly realized that:
Uncertainty or lack of rights led to conflict;
Exclusion from the resource led to conflict;
Top down management led to conflict;
Weak governance and unenforced policies led to conflict;
Elite capture led to conflict;
Poverty led to conflict.

7. Some MSD Basics What is Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue (MSD)?
Guided conversations that ensure people from different viewpoints, and often contradictory interests, exchange views
Why use MSDs?
Improve decision making
Increase creativity and innovation
Build trust between stakeholders
Higher credibility
More likely to implement
Share information
Build relationships and increase outreach
Directly address conflict
As a neutral, external facilitators, we guide conversation structure to address conflict

8. TFD’s Principles of Participation
An Inclusive and Adaptive Process
1. Inclusive of rights-holders and stakeholders
2. Respectful and consent-based
3. Pro-active in engaging with the issues of marginalized groups
4. Learning-based
5. Building on existing knowledge and capability
6. Transparent
7. Efficient, agile and rapid
8. Focused on practical ways forward
9. Reviewed and adapted
We operate under the following principles, ensuring the process is both inclusive and adaptive to bring about a social process that can learns together practically address issues

9. LUD is one of our largest initiatives to date, starting in 2016
This takes a Landscape Approach to environmental Visioning & conflict mediation, and places TFD’S focus on Forests within the ecological landscape
What is a Landscape approach?

10. Need for a Landscape- Based Approach
Challenges
Continuing deforestation, degradation and water pollution;
Competing interests for land and natural resources;
Growing effects of climate change;
Cross boundary dependency and impact;
Lack of coordination between sectors.
But few practical models
Due to continuing environmental degradation, and competing resources, it’s clear that a practical model is necessary to address lancscape issues.

11. Key Elements of a Landscape Approach
A process or strategy to reconcile competing land use interests;
Multi-stakeholder and cross- sectoral;
Recognizes the multi- functionality of landscapes;
Balances local needs and global development objectives;
Adaptive management supported by monitoring and feedback
Understands trade-offs between different land management choices to identify policy options, investment and development opportunities.
Elements: Understanding necessary trade-offs between sectors within the landscape

12. Implementing a Landscape Approach
This graphic, collaboratively developed with IDH and WBCSD
ID issues & stakeholders
Set up an MSP
Build shared understanding
Plan collaboratively
Work towards implementation
Monitor outcomes
The LUD Recognizes the need for iterative dialogues to respond to dynamic stakeholder needs and priorities
Also recognizing that a necessary component to implementation is cycles of assessment and adaptation repeated.
Ideal scenario: TFD supports and facilitates 2 years of biannual meetings, partnered with local hosts who then have capacity to take up the model

13. Platform Principles
Key Objective: A legitimate Multi-stakeholder platform for environmental decision making
Platform Principles:
Representative: All stakeholders are present and able to participate.
Neutral: Not embedded within a certain desired outcome or model of change
Transparent: Participants understand how decisions are made
Accountable: Goals and commitments are upheld
Locally Driven: Leadership, buy in and support from local partners is key to initiative success.
Internationally Informed: Designed to create an international community of practice of landscape approach implementers
These are the platform principles TFD works with, they are tied into the quality of governance and legitimacy of all stakeholders.
We are NEUTRAL, led by international, shared experience to give a foundation to representative local leadership and partners.

14. LUD Goals
To use the LUD process to strengthen existing and multi-stakeholder platform
Landscape vision shared amongst an inclusive set of landscape stakeholders;
Prioritized actions for achieving the vision that feed into ongoing processes on the ground.
Landscape decision making that adheres to LUD principles
Through dialogue stakeholders identify policy bottlenecks and best practices

15. LUD Activities LUD Background Research LUD Roundtables
Baseline Governance, Key Landscape Processes, Stakeholder mapping
LUD Roundtables
LUD Multi-Stakeholder Platform
Visioning and Actions
Continued Dialogue
M&E
Platform assessment
Stakeholder Network Analysis

16. 1. LUD Background Research
Land use and resource decision making baseline, including key ecological and social conflicts or concerns;
Identification of processes the landscape the LUD will feed into (such as policy reform or collaborative management programs);
Stakeholder mapping and identification of key stakeholders.
OUTPUTS: Background Scoping Paper. This includes a stakeholder map and multi- stakeholder decision making baseline

17. 2. LUD Roundtables
divided by stakeholder group or regionally as appropriate
methods may utilize maps and spatial rendering or be a facilitated focus group discussion depending on the context and needs
Supported by LUD Fellows from TFD
OUTPUTS: Roundtable landscape visions and identified priorities. Other outputs may be decided in the given landscape. Outputs that are compiled collectively between all focus groups will feed into the content of the larger LUD meeting.

18. 3. Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Platform
LUD Visioning Dialogue: The goal is, through dialogue, to form a landscape vision shared amongst an inclusive set of landscape stakeholders with a set of prioritized actions for achieving the vision.
LUD Dialogues operate under a set of principles that ensure the stakeholder platform is both legitimate and operational.
OUTPUTS: Shared landscape vision and prioritized actions to achieve vision. Network of landscape practitioners.
form a shared landscape vision with community buy-in

19. 4. Continuing Dialogue
The process envisions continued platform dialogues based on the needs that arise from the Landscape Platform Visioning Dialogue.
The LUD platform, advisory group, and key partners should decide the dialogue needs of the landscape.
This may include establishing a LUD working group, annual LUD meetings, follow up roundtables or others.

20. 5. M&E LUD Platform Assessment Evaluation Stakeholder Network Analysis
Survey handed out at end of platform meeting
Assesses LUD principles, asking for participants perceptions of representative, neutral, transparent, accountable and trustworthy.
Supports platform responsiveness to needs of stakeholders
Stakeholder Network Analysis
Building on stakeholder mapping, describes relationship between organizations
Can be used to understand general patterns of platform relationships or the role of a single organization
Importance as a Bridging Organization: providing a link between other stakeholders who would not otherwise be connected. Identifying these stakeholders can guide future efforts to bridge connections between organizations.
- Relationships with Decision-Making Organizations: Each LUD meeting will have specific processes taking place in the landscape that multi-stakeholder decisions are geared toward. Through the LUD platform meeting, some stakeholders will have the ability to influence this decision that otherwise would not. Through the SNA baseline we can understand which stakeholders have prior relationships with the decision making organization, and which gain access through the platform itself. This is one way to understand the role of the platform in landscape decision making.
In comparing stakeholder networks between landscapes, we can use these two metrics to analyze and compare the stakeholder maps:
Betweenness Centrality. A higher betweenness centrality means an organization is tightly connected with more stakeholders, thus serving as a bridge.
Modularity. This metric describes the degree to which a network is separated into clusters of stakeholders. A more interconnected stakeholder network will be less modular.

21. The Brazilian LUDs The Tanzanian LUDs The Ugandan LUD
Launched: April 2016 in Santa Catarina, Brazil;
Objectives: Initiate land use planning in the Upper Itajai Valley; Form partnerships between NGOs and companies focused on PES and restoration.
The Tanzanian LUDs
Launched: November 2016 in Iringa, Tanzania, now to Kilombero
Objectives: Initiate dialogue among land use committees and villages; Form partnerships between NGOs and companies focused on PES and restoration.
The Ghanaian LUDs
Objectives: Initiate discussions on land use and Land Tenure in coco and shea supply chains, lands, and livelihoods
The Ugandan LUD
Objective: initiative discussions between districts, NFA, and traditional leaders to centralize environmental governance of land types locally
Growing the LUD Initiative
PLUS in Uganda, Ghana, DRC, Tanzania
Expanding in Brazil
Exploring LUD in Guatemala, Myanmar and Thailand
GHANA: Legal pluralism with traditional chiefdoms and forest district assembly, leading to degrading extractive activities that don’t benefit local people
Key processes: Tree tenure clarification, REDD+ in Cacao commodity chain, illegal mining
Existing multi stakeholder platform (through CREMAs) with traditional leaders, forest district assembly, community resource management groups, govt. bodies
- DRC: IUCN and local partners have undergone restoration opportunity assessment research ROAM which is planned to implement under a convening body.
- TANZANIA: Partners in both IUCN and AWF in the Kilombero Basin have defined a Landscape and recently formalized an MSP body that has convened once to discuss conflict issues within the landscape. Since March, these issues have been validated and we are now convening the MSP to strategize a landscape Management plan.
- UGANDA: Here, the reverse is true… IUCN conducted thorough environmental research in the northern landscape boundary and formulated both Landscape and Forest Mngmnt Plans. The MSP we are building together is the only body capable of implementing these ambitious plans.

22. Thank You! TFD Documents and Publications
Available electronically at:
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The Forests Dialogue
New Haven, CT, USA